A Different Nature on 07/16/12

Tonight on A Different Nature we will experience the music and poetry of ANGUS MACLISE. MacLise was a percussionist, composer, poet, occultist and caligrapher who is probably best known as the original drummer for the Velvet Underground.

MacLise was a member of La Monte Young's Theater of Eternal Music and also participated in the early Fluxus movement in New York, when his roommate John Cale, who was also in Young's group, encouraged him to join the Velvet Underground in 1965. Near the end of the year, when the group got their first paying gig, MacLise quit, claiming the Velvets were selling out. At the same time MacLise also participated on the soundtracks in various expermental films done by Jack Smith and others. MacLise was also a beatnik world traveler, and spent much of the 1970s in India and Nepal.

MacLise's own music, recorded between the mid 1960s to the late 70s, but not released until decades later, consists of tribal dance workouts, Brion Gysin-like tape cut-ups, and minimalist droning infused with Tibetan mysticism. Tonight we listen to some of this music and hear a few bits of his poetry. Hosted by Rolf Semprebon